<p> </p><p>Ecological issues are current topics which consumers face in every-day life. The growing awareness by the consumers that they can have an impact on protection of the environment, animals and their own health is the reason of the growing market of ecological products (Kinnear, Talor and Ahmed, 1974; Polonsky, 1994). According to the Swedish consumer agency the agricultural sector had increased highly since the 1990s. Hence the companies had increased its market activities significant under the last decade (Konsumentverket, 2007).</p><p>It appears more and more that the most important aspect for competitive positioning of companies providing ecological food is to understand the factors which drive consumers to purchase ecological food products. The KRAV label appears as an essential part of market ecological food. In this context it is very interesting to identify in which degree the consumer is affected by the third-party label KRAV.</p><p>The purpose of the paper is to identify information about the ecological consumer as well as the factors that influence consumers to buy ecological food products and in this context examine the awareness and importance of ecological labels, in Jönköping County.</p><p>The thesis is limited in its geographical area because the consumer survey is done in several cities in Jönköping County. The thesis considers general the ecological food industry and does not include other ecological industries such as clothes or furniture.</p><p>By studying former surveys and conducting a previous study a survey questionnaire was developed. 102 respondents from Jönköpings County were asked to fill in this questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated with the statistical program SPSS. Analysis of variance, correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were used.</p><p>The authors have got the impression that the ecological consumer in Jönköping County is mostly female and higher educated. The most important factors that influence the consumer positively to choose the ecological products are healthiness, environmental friendliness and better taste. If products do not include pesticides and are produced “animal friendly” it also influence the consumer positive. Negative factors that influence consumers are still a too high price, unavailability and bad/no information.</p><p> </p>

Ecological issues are current topics which consumers face in every-day life. The growing awareness by the consumers that they can have an impact on protection of the environment, animals and their own health is the reason of the growing market of ecological products (Kinnear, Talor and Ahmed, 1974; Polonsky, 1994). According to the Swedish consumer agency the agricultural sector had increased highly since the 1990s. Hence the companies had increased its market activities significant under the last decade (Konsumentverket, 2007). It appears more and more that the most important aspect for competitive positioning of companies providing ecological food is to understand the factors which drive consumers to purchase ecological food products. The KRAV label appears as an essential part of market ecological food. In this context it is very interesting to identify in which degree the consumer is affected by the third-party label KRAV. The purpose of the paper is to identify information about the ecological consumer as well as the factors that influence consumers to buy ecological food products and in this context examine the awareness and importance of ecological labels, in Jönköping County. The thesis is limited in its geographical area because the consumer survey is done in several cities in Jönköping County. The thesis considers general the ecological food industry and does not include other ecological industries such as clothes or furniture. By studying former surveys and conducting a previous study a survey questionnaire was developed. 102 respondents from Jönköpings County were asked to fill in this questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated with the statistical program SPSS. Analysis of variance, correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were used. The authors have got the impression that the ecological consumer in Jönköping County is mostly female and higher educated. The most important factors that influence the consumer positively to choose the ecological products are healthiness, environmental friendliness and better taste. If products do not include pesticides and are produced “animal friendly” it also influence the consumer positive. Negative factors that influence consumers are still a too high price, unavailability and bad/no information.